Life in Istanbul

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We arrived safely in Istanbul (though just barely- one of our 3 flights was overbooked and they had given our seats away!) and were warmly welcomed into the Robles home. It was so good to reunite with familiar faces in such an unfamiliar country. They live on the Asia side of the Bosphoros and the airport is on the Europe side, so it meant a great taxi ride over the Bosphoros bridge, all lit up, allowing us to see the city and mosques by night- it was breathtaking.

There is so much that fascinates about Istanbul- it's hard to know what to write. We have been so grateful to have such gracious and devoted hosts as Jen and Armando (and Josh)- they have toured us around and allowed us to have incredibly memorable and enjoyable days. Istanbul is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is and everything is in Turkish, so I could imagine our days would not be running quite so smoothly in their absence. (maybe a bit of an understatement)

On our first day we saw Topkapi, the Blue Mosque, and did a lot of walking and exploring in the city. You could walk the rest of your life and never see all of Istanbul, but we're trying our best to fit in what we can in a few days. It's late, so that's all the writing for now... the pictures are all you're really interested in anyway, right?

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Photos

kings and queens of the castle
at the end of our bosphorus cruise